Equipment is more than you think. Trucks with cherry pickers or spider lifts are a couple hundred grand each, plus they need to be maintained and replaced. And you probably need more than one. So now you're deep into 6-figure debt, and that means big monthly payments. That's before you even get to the costs to store the equipment safely, leasing an office, skilled workers, etc. And yes insurance and bonding, which, you can cause some major damage to multiple structures at once, so that's not cheap at all. How about marketing? Do some billboards or commercials? Tens of thousands more.

I've worked in commercial construction (which absolutely is a cash generating machine) and tree trimming services are like a mini version of that - you need a lot of upfront cash to make it happen and get a stable cash flow going before it's solid and profitable.

Equipment and wages, but also all the time you have to put into your business that isn't billable.

Time spent on the phone, scheduling people, time spent doing estimates for jobs, time spent doing business accounting, time spent on truck maintenance, time spent disposing of materials that you've hauled away.

You can pay someone to do almost all of that, and charge for estimates if you'd like, but paying for an accountant or a secretary turns a time cost into a money cost, so you're either losing your hours or doing extra jobs to pay for your accountant. Since finding enough work can be a challenge, it's easier to put in your time, but spending, say, 8 hours a week on accounting is still 8 hours you weren't paid that week.

Taking your truck in for maintenance also means you're paying a mechanic, who has to price similarly to you for all the same reasons, so if you're measuring in time spent per day, you'll find setting aside time to do maintenance yourself is probably worth nearly as much as what you'll make actually working.

Charging for estimates would be great, except that's a privilege you get when you have enough work that you can decline jobs. If you don't have that much work, eating the 10$ of gas (probably 30+ now, but 10$ then) is better than having a customer decline to call because he's paying for you to do maybe nothing, in his mind.

Some weeks I worked 5 days, some 2-3 days. I was college age and either was fine for me at the time. The arborist was putting in 40-50 hours of work on that slow week, 60-70 on the full one.

A larger organization is gonna break all those time costs into additional employees that manage the day to day, an accountant, a mechanic, a secretary, and that's a great way to visualize all the costs that you can't bill for that someone who is working on their own or as a single-crew business is still paying for, just in time they don't get reimbursed for instead.

Yes. Fuel Veichle payments. Veichle maitnace Veichle anual safety and emissions, due to being comercial use Veichle insurance. Equipment costs Mulchers Cranes Chainsaws wich at that level, become consumables. Harnesses, ropes climbing, and riging gear that needs to be replaced frequently. Mainance on said equipment. Oil changes, blades etc Property lease and insurance to store the equipment and tools and act as central location for the business. Saftey training and certificates, working at heights, whimis etc. More insurance. Wages and wsib. Taxes, then more taxes on the taxes. If your company has over x amount of employees you have an extra health tax you have to pay just because you have more employees. I don't know the full reasoning for it. Permits and planing, to operate in some towns and cities. Disposal fees. Only so much of it can be passed down to the customer too. Plus many more misc , Christmas bonus, lunches and coffey for your employees, water and electrolytic drinks. Incidentals etc.

For what it's worth, many autistic folks have a hard time discerning satire so that kinda adds to it.

That, and I met people that if those words came out of their mouth it would not surprise me.

Alright so when the wood chipper sheds the tree all these extra bark chips just get tossed out. So we simplified the whole thing, we rounded them all down, drop the remainder into an account we opened.

It tends to be the skewed worldview of people obsessed with easy money schemes who consume too much social media and actually don't have any exposure to real life business.

Make humility great again

feh, we don't even need the tree to be dangerous, a bunch of 20/30 somethings running a chainsaw

Don't they say not to take apart microwaves because the capacitor could shock and kill you? Is it the same with HVAC capacitors?

If Dave were worth his salt - he would be capable of telling you this job is over his head, or if you legally need a professional.

That's part of being a handyman. If he can't do that then he's dangerous, and not worth any amount of money.

And you'd best pay him for coming to this conclusion....

What you are paying for with that master plumber is the knowledge of the codes and the experience that they have. Plus all the tools to do the job.

A float valve replacement? "Dave" is more likely to charge 450 than a "master plumber" because 450 is a rip off and an established plumber will have a reputation they want to maintain.

Man I wish I could do that for computers

Have you ever installed a float . .. because $400 for at most an hour of work is crazy. If it's more than an hour then you're doing something wrong or something else.

But I literally just redid mine and it's stupid easy.

you mean your tree.

I've met people like this before: I hope it's satirical, but wouldn't be shocked if it was posted in earnest.

Edit: Yes, I am now aware this particular account ia just satire.

Reread their username

I've known people like this IRL, glad this isn't real through.

Edit: Weird downvotes, but OK.

My experience so far:

For the big company you pay a big chunk of money and they show up on time and are done in an hour or three. The tree(s) comes down fast, everything’s hauled off, chipped up, or ground down. They likely do several jobs in a day, so that’s where the money comes from. You know it’s 99% chance they are actually insured.

The small business consisting of a guy or two might get to you in a few weeks. He might or might not show up for the originally discussed time and day. They’ll be there for several hours, probably take a few breaks, and then they’ll need to drive off and retrieve their chipper truck. Maybe he’s insured. Maybe not. You’ve just got to go by his word. Grinding the stump might happen same day, or maybe a couple days later when they drag the stump grinder around to the last 5 jobs they did to finish them.

The big company will cost more. But not a whole lot more.

That depends entirely on the customer and how long they want to be hearing chainsaws, chippers and having trucks and equipment on their property. Can it be done with just one guy? Probably not reasonably, especially if you live somewhere like I do, the Pacific Northwest and the trees are big. But a few guys and a small operation with small trucks and minimal equipment? Sure, but they still need to be licensed and insured, they are doing a hazardous job, and with the time not being saved by machines you’re paying for significantly more labor hours. The reason tree trimming businesses do it that way is it’s generally more efficient and more efficient typically costs you about the same but puts a little money in their pocket. Things have a built in cost that you can’t undercut with out straight up losing money, you pay what you pay or you do it yourself (and you still have to pay some of that for the equipment or gear needed). Business works best at scale, that’s just how it works in most industries.

It also says 10 other jobs so 11 per week even

He says 10 other jobs per week. So that’s $1750x11x52 which is over a million.